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Thursday, October 16, 2014

Film Review: Minnesota's Backside LB in Cover 4

Minnesota’s run defense played pretty well against
Northwestern. Mostly utilizing Cover 4, they were able to maintain numbers
advantage inside the box for most of the game. When they did get gashed though,
it was mostly because the backside was slow in pursuit. In Cover 4, the LBs,
particularly the backside LB, must flow fast. If he reads the play immediately,
he can tend to read “cloudy/clear” and shoot off the butt of a pulling OL or
beat a zone blocking OL across his face and blow up the play in the backfield.
If he can’t do that, he must scrape over the top quickly to get to the
playside.

Backside LB Slow in
Pursuit

Why is it so important for the backside LB to flow fast?
Because in cover 4, the backside safety will typically maintain backsidecutback responsibility. He must work down to the LB level and tackle any cut
back that comes his direction. When the backside LB doesn’t flow fast, a crease
forms between the frontside LBs and the backside. We’ll take a look at it here.

Here’s the man to keep an eye on.

Immediately after the snap, you see the frontside LBs
flowing fast outside, looking to meet the RB at the point of attack, chasing
from inside-out. Likewise, the frontside safety has alley fill responsibility,
so he will force everything back inside to the fast flowing frontside LBs. But
the backside LB is slow to read the play.

You see here that he has hardly moved and the RB has been
given the ball.

Once he reads the play, he still isn’t fast flowing, but
instead is not confident in his read and you start to see the crease forming.

By the time the backside OL gets into their blocks, you see
this. The LB has been sealed behind the DE and can’t cut down the lane. There
are three defenders in the same, outside gap now, and no one to prevent this
vertical cut.

One of the primary things with Cover 4 is that everyone must
do their job for all gaps to be accounted for. The backside LB has won his
helmet across playside. Here, Northwestern again cuts it back. This is a nob
adjustment, so the CB to the bottom of the screen has cloud leverage. But note
how the CB has failed to squeeze down the backside gap and stays way too far
outside.

Luckily for Minnesota, the backside LB is able to fight back
across to the ball carrier and prevent this from going longer. Here's the video.

Conclusion

The same can be said for the safety position. They must do
their job as well. And when everyone did, Minnesota shut down the Northwestern
run game. But when someone failed to do their job, either a LB fast flowing, a
safety coming down to the LB level on the backside quick enough, or the CB
squeezing the backside cutback, all defenders must do their assignment to the
Cover 4 defense to be gap sound.